Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiology is intended for the clinical cardiologist who wishes to refresh or deepen his understanding of the cellular basis of cardiac electrophysiology, for researchers interested in the basis of the electrical activity of the heart, such as clinical investigators, physiologists or pharmacologists, for teachers in physiology, pharmacology and other biomedical studies, and for medical students from graduate to postgraduate level.
Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiology starts with a primer of basic electrophysiology, the cardiac action potential and the physiological basis of the electrocardiogram. Our second aim after having introduced the basic concepts was to continue with giving an overview of the properties of the most important ionic currents in the heart, and to treat their modulation, in order to deal with the mechanisms underlying cardiac ischaemia, arrhythmias and remodelling.
Edward Carmeliet and Johan Vereecke, Katholieke University Leuven, Belgium, have collaborated for over 30 years in cardiac electrophysiology research. Their studies include the genesis of the normal action potential, its changes in ischaemia, the effect of drugs, and the mechanism of arrhythmias, using techniques from the classic potential registration with intracellular microelectrodes to whole cell clamp and single channel measurements.